Pakistan : Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Exodus

It is not surprising that minorities live in a state of fear in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Lawmakers representing minorities in the Senate have demanded army protection for the security of non-Muslims in KP. Their concerns are not unwarranted. The IG police has warned of targeted attacks on minorities, however names have not yet been disclosed. According to police, at least eight Sikhs have been killed in the past year and a half – the first ever recorded sectarian killings of Sikhs in Pakistani history. Senator Amar Jeet of Awami National Party lamented the lack of writ of the KP government, as did Hamman Das of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal on Friday.

The situation in Islamabad has left everything else on hold. Only 210 of total 540 platoons of the Frontier Corps are guarding the border while the rest are called by the ministry of interior to Islamabad for security duties. This is not just the fault of the government but also of the protesters who need to now come to an agreement or compromise. The Pak-Afghan border is also unwatched at various places due to the scarcity of FC personnel.

This province is in deep cultural neglect. Myopic revisions of education, lack of security, religiously motivated violence, exodus of minorities, and political carelessness have turned it into a breeding ground for hate. Last month, Harjeet Singh, another Sikh shopkeeper, was shot dead at his herbal medicine shop in Peshawar while pamphlets praising ISIS are spreading through the province. A multi-story shopping mall in Peshawar, Orakzai Plaza, where Sikhs owned a range of shops, now stands abandoned after Sikhs closed their businesses for security reasons. They are not even sending their boys to school due to their headdress. The migration of Hindus and Sikhs from KP has gone almost unnoticed. One is almost glad that they are putting themselves out of danger rather than anyone raising a voice, much less a finger, about the protection of minority groups. For many of the Sikh community, Pakistan is their spiritual home, a home that is becoming more and more dangerous.